Yo Tengo No Problemas Con Mallorca

Hola my peoples. W-O-W. I must say unequivocally that Mallorca is a special place. My trip was good. Like really good. A few things could have improved it (like say, Heather) and better weather, as I was really cold. This happens when you head to a sun destination and pack only sun destination clothes. Pretty small complaint overall I suppose. Shoot, I almost even enjoyed my flight. I only sweated through one shirt.

Be forewarned- This is going to be a long posting, so settle in with your glass of bourbon and enjoy.

So I started off the trip by getting up at the ungodly hour of 4:30. I suppose this is the drawback to getting cheap flights on the low-cost carriers. I wouldn't say I won't do it again, but man, it really might be worth shelling out the extra 20 pounds to not get up so bloody early. The flight was not the best, but at least it was quick...only 2h10m. My passport is actually filling up too quickly so I got a little sticky post-it and said to the Immigration officer "Pagina seis, por favor"(page six please). He smiled, said 'si' and promptly stamped page seven. I picked up my rental car and headed to the north coast of the island, a town called Alucudia.

One of the reasons why I enjoyed Mallorca so much is it was set up for easy travel. Every roundabout was signed for the next town, it was laid out logically, car parks were set up on the outskirts of old towns so you didn't have to drive in them. I was easy. I didn't have any reservations anywhere, just a guide book (with no map), but I managed to find a cheap, clean hotel that was 30E a night.

Here is a shot out my bedroom window.

Alucudia was really nice. It had a 10th century wall and towers around the city and all the buildings were a sun-baked light orange, which felt very Mediterranean.

The main reason I had come up here is a national park called the Cap de Fumentor and it was worth it. I have driven some bonkers roads lately, most notably in Portugal last year, but this one takes the cake. The Cap is a 20 km winding, twisting, switchbacked, magnificent, breathtaking road of death. Basically, the Transmontana just ends and the ocean starts. I really wished I was able to rent a motorcycle instead of the Ford Fiesta I had (all the places were closed in the off season. Sad face.) There were a number of viewpoints to stop at and soak in the sights. I stopped at them all. Man, it was awesome. Just plain awesome.

Here are the pics. I wished I had a deluxe camera there.

A lot of the town is shut down for the off season (where do they go?), but I did manage to find a sweet restaurant and get some quality eats. I took off the next morning not really knowing where to go. I made a bunch of stops along the way to check things out.

Here is the beach outside of Aluciuda. It was not warm, but I just imagined it in the summer. If you have never swam in the Mediterranean, I would add that to your bucket list.

I stopped at a go-kart track because the book said they had a museum of vintage motorcycles (it was closed), but I saw this kid no more than 5-6? burning around the race track on this little pocket bike. He was going so fast I couldn't believe it. The camera didn't even have the shutter speed to keep up with him. Look at the tires behind him. They're bigger than him!! He was even dropping his knee and dragging leather around the corners. I was impressed.

So I kept going and headed to a town called Cala Figuera because the book said more businesses stay open there in the off season than the surrounding towns. Well, one hotel and one restaurant shouldn't really qualify as a lot of choice. The hotel wasn't that bad, and they did have a heater in the room, so I scooped it for a sweet 35E. The rest of the town was nice, but the highlight was the old fishing port that was around the bend of the cove. The green shutters apparently mean the people who live there are fisherman. It was, again, set up easy to walk around and I did so three times (because there was nothing else to do).

I skipped dinner in Cala and headed to Sayatani, the next big town. It was mostly shut down too. I ended up eating at a restaurant run by Germans (they love it in Mallorca) and had an overpriced, but fresh salad. They really stole the show with dessert though--some sort of lemon and custard torte. Dang, it was good.

The next day I was off to the capital, Palma.

I ditched the car at the airport and found my hotel. Another good off season place of 30E a night! It turns out that Mallorca is gearing up for a 'mini' Carnival celebration that was slated to start on the 2nd. To get ready for this festival, they had a festival--The celebration of the Balearic Islands. There were about 200 tents with merchants from all over Spain and Portugal selling their wares and food. It was raining quite hard by now, but I just walked around eating. MMMMMMMM.

This is one stand where they had these pots of pork, the biggest octopus I have even seen, and a very large bbq of ribs.

I had a bunch of bits of grub, but my favorite was a glass of red wine and piece of chorizo from the Basque region for 1.50E.

I also ended up with a slice of Quesada. It was kind of like cheesecake, just more creamy and infinitely delicious. It has a wicked strawberry topping on it. MMMMMMMM!

The rains kept coming and I stopped at tent and had a nice hour visit with the Portuguese couple running it. They had a great deal where you could buy a ceramic 'horn' mug for 6E filled with mulled wine and then your refills are only 2.50.....just like a super big gulp, but better. Let's just say I received good value for my purchase and I warmed up considerably.

The Wine People!

I was really excited too to see my first works of Gaudi, the early century Spanish architect. His buildings in Barcelona are some of my favorite. In a nutshell, he hated straight lines and created this kind of melting surrealist look to buildings. He only contributed a small amount of work to the grand cathedral in Palma, but I was still pretty stoked. Unfortunately, it was closed! Alas, you can see the side arches are his. I will get to see all the big ones in Barcelona anyway in April (whoop whoop!).

Some shots of the market at night and the port.

My hotel did have the weirdest shower...it was like a stand up hot tub.

I ended up staring at this little guy for like 10 minutes. I heart owls.

The last night I ended up going to a tapas bar that had the best wine idea ever! They give you a charge card type deal, and then you go to a machine that has 48 different wines and you choose what you want. You can pick three sizes of sample size, 1/2 glass, and full glass. The prices ranged from 35 cents to 4E. They had a lot of Mallorcan wines that I wouldn't have been able to taste along with a wide variety of Spanish mainland ones. It was great. I also had great meatball and tubes tapas. I always refer to calamari as tubes- who doesn't.

So I paid to check my bag on the way home and stuffed it with Spanish goodies. It was very heavy. Here a pic of all my loot.

I splurged a little too much and bought a pair of handmade leather shoes. Hopefully, I can manage to take care of them for a long, long time. Well, I have to because I can't afford anymore shoes for four years...

The funny thing was Manny was really nice when I was gone. Here is my smokestack when I got home. Ha.

All in all, a great trip and I will definitely go back there. Do you wanna go? Just come visit and I'll hook it up!

Blast-er from the Past-er

In light of the medieval feel of Palma, here is a pic of Heather's lair last year in Kelowna and her roommate from the netherworld (not Scott, the dragon).

Much to the chagrin of many of you, I have run out of Manny cats to post. I may have a source on some good intel for some more, but in the meantime, I have a Spanish treat for you!

Mallorqui Cats!

I shall call him Jorge.

This guy was mad I was taking his picture. I shall call him P.O.'ed Paul.

Until next time, CC.